Jackson Wong, vice president of Tanrich Securities in Hong Kong, said the sell-off was creating opportunities for sophisticated investors to buy at bargain prices. What was unclear, he said, was when those investments might bear fruit.

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“It’s still very hard to predict how the U.S. market will do,” Wong said. “When the dust settles, if the situation doesn’t get worse in the U.S. or Europe, the situation will rebound. But the U.S. has to stabilize.”

Worries about the U.S. economic recovery have been building since the government said that economic growth was far weaker in the first half of 2011 than economists expected. Intensifying concerns were reports showing that the manufacturing and services industries barely grew in July, although job growth was better than economists expected last month.

Investors are also worried that Italy and Spain could become the next European countries to have trouble repaying their debts. Greece, Ireland and Portugal have already received bailout loans because of Europe’s 21-month-old debt crisis.

The fears have pushed investors to shun Spanish and Italian bonds, which have led to higher yields and in even higher borrowing costs for the two countries.

The European Central Bank stepped in Monday and bought billions of euros worth of their bonds. The move helped to lower yields on Spanish and Italian bonds, at least temporarily.

Benchmark oil for September delivery fell $4.74 to $76.57 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

That is the lowest settlement price of the year for crude, but it’s still higher than the $71.63 per barrel low of the past 12 months. Oil hit that on Aug. 24 of last year, when a combination of disappointing economic news and abundant supplies drove down prices. Crude fell $5.57, or 6.4 percent, to settle at $81.31 per barrel on the Nymex on Monday.

In currencies, the dollar weakened to 77.12 yen from 77.70 yen late Monday in New York. The euro rose to $1.4223 from $1.4196.